It is known from German patent publication 3,442,421 C to laterally adjust a door or flap borne by a furniture hinge in the pivot plane of the hinge relatively to the base plate bearing the same. If however for such lateral adjustment of a door the hinge arm is pivoted away from the base plate secured to a supporting wall, the hinge arm will assume a position in relation to the door at an obtuse angle which corresponds to a slight opening of the door, although the door, because it abuts against body parts or a door frame, is in its closed position. The German patent publication 3,442,421 C relates to a furniture hinge, whose pot-like, female pivotal hinge part is connected by means of two links with joint pins, arranged rectangularly or in trapezium with the hinge arm. In the case of such a four-link hinge, the joint gap, that is to say the distance between the end wall of the supporting wall and the door, when the door is opened a little so that the German patent publication 3,442,421 C relates to a design which the hinge arm is so made to move in guides of a base plate or intermediate plate that when there is a pivoting movement equal to the size of the change in the gap caused by the pivoting movement it is shifted in its longitudinal direction on the base plate or intermediate plate.
Hinges of the type initially mentioned, which are provided with only one joint or with two links in the manner described in German patent publication 3,442,421 C or furthermore with intersecting hinge arms in the case of so-called "wide angle hinges" are frequently provided with closing means, which urge the doors or flaps in the closing range movement thereof, that is to say in a small angular range of 5.degree. to 8.degree., short of the completely closed position into such closed position. Such a closing device, which consists of a cam arranged adjacent to one joint, on which a spring-loaded thrust follower runs, is disclosed for instance in the German patent publication 2,401,178 A. The thrust follower, which is bearing on a spring-loaded pivot lever and consists of a roller, runs in the opening range on a curved cam which is concentric to the pivot axis so that the corresponding joint lever is not urged to perform a closing or opening movement and it is only in the closing movement range that it moves on a part of the cam approaching the joint pin so that in the closing range it produces a closing moment via the cam.
If however in the case of a lateral misalignment of the door, the door is merely moved through a small angle into its open position, the part of the cam which the thrust follower moves along to get into the closed position will be correspondingly shorter, this leading to a closing moment and meaning that, if the thrust follower is not completely prevented from coming onto the cam part producing a closing moment. The lateral adjustment of a door or flap by pivoting the hinge arm in the pivot plane of the hinge may also mean that the effect of a closing device with a cam and a thrust follower is reduced or completely overridden.